Five Things

Five fascinating business facts – Part 53

by DigitControl

January 29, 2018 | 6:45 am

Nigeria is seeking to double its tax to gross domestic product ratio by 2020 from the proportion of 6 percent to GDP which is among the lowest in the world. Peers like South Africa at 26 percent, and Ghana, its West African neighbor, at almost 16 percent. Boosting tax collection will make more money available to help spur activity in an economy that contracted in 2016 due to a decline in the output of oil.

20%

Mark Mobius, the investor who made a habit and yes, some money from promoting emerging-markets for decades, is heading into retirement betting the best is yet to come. The 81-year-old money manager kicked off his final television interview before leaving Franklin Templeton Investments last week, predicting developing-nation stocks will set a fresh record this year. That echoed his December forecast that emerging shares will likely surpass the 2007 peak by 20 percent, though he didn’t give a timeframe then.

$90m

BNP Paribas’s US subsidiary has pleaded guilty to fixing forex rates in the US and will pay a fine of $90m. The French bank’s US unit had been charged with conspiring to fix prices for central and eastern European, Middle Eastern and African currencies traded in the US and elsewhere from September 2011 to July 2013, according to a court filing in Manhattan. According to the US Justice Department, BNPP USA is the sixth major bank to plead guilty as a result of the department’s ongoing investigation into antitrust and fraud crimes in the FX market.

$540bn

Leaders from the world’s biggest economies are planning to discuss a global regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies at the next G20 summit in March, European Central Bank policymaker Benoît Cœuré said on Friday. Speaking at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Mr Cœuré warned that policymakers should focus on the opportunities opened up by cryptocurrencies as well as introducing rules to protect investors and guard against illicit activity. After a surge in the combined market value of cryptocurrencies from less than $20bn to more than $540bn, the phenomenon — and the blockchain technology that underpins it — has become impossible for the financial establishment to ignore, despite its denunciations of bitcoin in particular as “a fraud”, “index of money-laundering” and worse.

700,000

Japanese carmaker Toyota’s South African unit recalled more than 700,000 vehicles because of an issue with safety bags used in the cars, an official at Toyota South Africa said. “Toyota South Africa has initiated an immediate recall in excess of 700,000 vehicles across 10 models, including Lexus. This is part of an ongoing global campaign initiated by car manufacturers related to defective Takata safety bags,” the official said on Thursday.